The present invention relates to a device for dyeing tissues of organisms for immune response observation, which is used at hospitals or the like for dyeing a piece of tissue taken from a living body in order to diagnose cancer.
There have been practiced diagnoses of cancer or the like by utilizing the immune response of antigen-antibody reactions.
In the case of diagnosis utilizing such immune response, a piece of tissue taken from a living body is attached to a slide glass and is brought into contact with treatment liquids (to be referred to as "dyeing liquids" hereinafter) in a predetermined sequence, thereby dyeing the piece of tissue.
However, when the piece of tissue is subjected to the dyeing process for immune response observation for the above-mentioned objects, the following problems arise.
That is, in the case of the automatic dyeing process so far carried out, a dyeing liquid is first poured into a beaker-shaped vessel, and then a slide glass to which is attached a piece of tissue is dipped into the dyeing liquid in the vessel so as to be brought into contact with the dyeing liquid. By doing so, a relatively large quantity of dyeing liquid must unavoidably be used. The dyeing liquids used for the observation of immune response are very expensive so that it is desirable to reduce the quantity of a dyeing liquid used to a minimum.
Because of the reason described above; that is, in order to reduce the cost of the process for dyeing pieces of tissue for immune response observation, the dyeing process has been carried out manually in most cases, but the dyeing process takes a relatively long period of time so that in some cases it must be carried out throughout the night. Therefore, such manual dyeing process is not desirable from the viewpoint of health and working conditions.
In view of the above, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a device for dyeing a piece of tissue for immune response observation which can carry out the process of dyeing tissues with a small quantity of a dyeing liquid in a positive and reliable manner whereby the above and other problems encountered in the conventional tissue dyeing processes can be substantially solved.
For the above and other objects, a device for dyeing tissues for immune response observation according to the present invention comprises: flat base means with a substantially horizontal upper surface; means for supporting above said upper surface a slide glass with the undersurface thereof facing said upper surface and with the undersurface having a tissue attached thereto, said supporting means being formed relative to the base means to provide a thin wedge-shaped gap between said upper surface and said undersurface of the slide glass; and means for supplying a dyeing liquid into said gap.
The means for supporting the slide glass may comprise a ridge disposed on one side of the base means, and a support surface provided on the other side of the base means, the support surface being slightly higher than the top of the ridge.
In the case of carrying out the tissue dyeing process by utilizing the device with the above-described construction in accordance with the present invention, the slide glass having on its undersurface a piece of tissue to be dyed is placed in position above the flat base means so as to bridge the ridge and the supporting surface in such a way that the piece of tissue on the slide glass is in opposing relationship with the upper surface of the base portion. Under the above-described condition, a thin wedge-like gap which is converging in a direction from the ridge to the supporting surface is defined between the undersurface of the slide glass and the upper surface of the base portion.
After the bridging of the ridge and the supporting surface by the slide glass, one or more drops of a predetermined dyeing liquid are dripped onto the surface of the base portion not covered by the slide glass. Because of the thin wedge-like gap, one or more drops of the dyeing liquid supplied onto the exposed surface of the base portion spread through the gap by capillary action and are brought in intimate contact with the piece of tissue on the undersurface of the slide glass. In other words, the piece of tissue is dipped into the dyeing liquid within the gap.
After the piece of tissue on the undersurface of the slide glass is brought into contact with the dyeing liquid for a predetermined length of time, the used dyeing liquid exhaust means which has been in the de-energized state is energized so that the used dyeing liquid is exhausted through a discharge port opened adjacent to the ridge in the upper surface of the base portion. After exhausting the used dyeing liquid, the exhaust means is de-energized and then cleaning liquid supply means which has been maintained in the de-energized state, is energized for a predetermined period of time so that the cleaning liquid is discharged through a discharge port opened in the upper surface of the base portion adjacent to the ridge. The cleaning liquid supplied in the manner described above spreads through the gap between the undersurface of the slide glass and the upper surface of the base portion by capillary action, thereby cleaning the dyeing liquid attached to the piece of tissue on the slide glass.
After the completion of the cleaning step for a predetermined period of time, the waste liquid exhaust means is energized again so that the used cleaning liquid in the gap is exhausted out of the device. Thereafter, the next dyeing liquid dripping step is started.
The above-stated steps are repeated so that a series of tissue dyeing process is accomplished.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.